Do you need a lending workflow or a document portal?

A broker collects the same kind of pack every week: bank statements, payslips, ID and a signed declaration. Some clients come back a year later for a remortgage. Droplana vs FileInvite is a choice between specialist lending intake and a simpler client document portal. Droplana gives each client one private, persistent portal for sending documents and receiving files back, including phone photos of paper, with no client account.

Both products keep a place for returning clients. FileInvite's current product and pricing targets complex lending. It lists persistent portals, direct messaging, signing and cloud-storage connections, with further collaboration and integration capabilities by plan.

Published by Droplana, one of the products compared. Vendor scope checked September 21, 2026. Cost scenarios are illustrative.

Where FileInvite is the better buy

It puts documents where you already work. Connections to cloud storage and other systems are central to FileInvite's offer, and they matter if every file must land in a document management system. Droplana has no storage or lending connectors. Documents stay in the portal until your staff move them; an automation tool connected through the MCP server can see what arrived, but not download it.

It is built for lending volume. Its plans are described in loans per year, and further workflow and collaboration features come with higher tiers. A Droplana checklist is a list of documents with a status per item, not a form builder or a lending workflow.

If either of these decides your purchase, ask FileInvite for the exact connector and workflow in your proposal. Do not assume any system can connect.

Droplana vs FileInvite: compare the scope

Requirement	FileInvite	Droplana
Document job	Complex lending collection	General client document exchange
Returning clients	Persistent document portal	One persistent portal per client
Direction	Collection, with messaging to the client	Both ways: collect files and send documents back
Messaging	In-portal direct messaging	Per-file comments, no general inbox
Integrations	Connections vary by plan	MCP server and signed webhooks; no storage or lending connectors
Annual cost example	Standard starts at USD9,900/year	Practice: EUR490/year plus tax
Capacity	Starting offer describes up to 100 typical loans/year	5 staff, unlimited clients, 250 GB, 2 GB per file
Hosting	Obtain region and contract details for your account	Files, comments and metadata on Hetzner in Germany; operated by an EU company in Croatia; DPA on every plan

Price the work you need

Illustrative scope: a three-person business collecting documents for 80 typical commercial loans a year. FileInvite's starting Standard offer is USD9,900/year for up to 100 typical loans; implementation costs depend on scope. Droplana Practice is EUR490/year plus tax for five staff including the owner and unlimited clients. It buys document exchange, not lending automation. Confirm volume rules, setup costs and integrations in the FileInvite quote. Prices checked September 21, 2026; no currency conversion or feature equivalence is assumed.

The axis matters as much as the number. Droplana does not count clients, loans or requests on paid plans. It counts team seats and storage. If your volume grows faster than your team, that is the difference to price.

Follow one request through correction and return

In an illustrative broker trial, request statements, income evidence and a signed supporting document from a fictional client. Have the client upload files or phone photos. Comment on an incomplete statement, receive a replacement and send your document summary back. Repeat with a second request in the same portal. The accounting demonstration below shows the same upload and outstanding-item controls, not a lending integration.

Product demonstration with fictional Ledger & Oak Accounting and Maple & Vine Bistro data. The desktop portal shows two supplied items and one missing receipt. Open the full-size screenshot.

Clients do not create a Droplana account. Strict mode, the default, verifies email on a new device, and PDF signing needs that identified session. The signed PDF is saved as a new file with a public verification page; it is not a qualified electronic signature.

What Droplana does not do

Droplana does not supply lending workflow, automatic document matching, custom forms, routing or cloud-storage sync. It does not check whether a document satisfies a lender's requirements.

Reminders run on fixed schedules. If a client leaves checklist items open for 7 days, they get a nudge; after 14 days the reminder comes to you. An item can also carry an optional due date: a reminder is prepared two days before and on the date, and reaches the client with their next email. You and the client can switch reminders off. There is no configurable chasing sequence.

A logo is available on every plan, but there is no custom domain or accent colour, and the footer keeps a small Droplana line.

Who should choose which

Choose FileInvite when lending-specific collection and connected workflows justify the scope and the price. Choose Droplana when staff can review and move documents with the systems they already use, and the client needs one simple place to send documents and get them back. Compare operator, storage region, subprocessors and contracts separately; a company's address is not a complete privacy assessment.

For the broader buying questions, read the client portal guide. The mortgage and credit brokers page shows the portal in a lending practice.

Questions before trying it

Does FileInvite have a persistent client portal?

Yes. Its current offering lists persistent document portals. The comparison is about lending workflow and integration needs, not whether clients can return.

Does Droplana connect to lending software?

No. There is no connector or automatic document transfer to lending systems. Your staff must handle any transfer outside the portal.

Can a broker send documents back to the client in Droplana?

Yes. The portal works in both directions. You upload a summary, an offer or a form to sign, and the client downloads it from the same place they uploaded their statements. Each file keeps its own comments.

How large can a client's file be in Droplana?

100 MB per file on Free, 1 GB on Solo, 2 GB on Practice and 5 GB on Studio. A storage add-on on a paid plan raises the limit to 5 GB. A phone photo of a bank statement is far below all of these.

Droplana plans

Free covers 3 clients, 2 GB and 100 MB per file, and keeps each file for up to 180 days after upload. Paid plans are flat per business.

On Free, each file expires 180 days after upload. Your clients and their access stay active, so you can keep sharing new files. Active paid plans have no plan-imposed retention limit. Expiry settings, deletion and cancellation rules still apply; a persistent portal address does not guarantee permanent file availability. Team sizes include you. No setup fees or automatic overage charges. Prices exclude applicable tax.

Compare plan details

Plan limits and services. Team sizes include the owner.

Included	Free	Solo	Practice	Studio
Team size	Just you	Just you	5	Unlimited
Clients	3	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	2 GB	50 GB	250 GB	1 TB
Maximum file size	100 MB	1 GB	2 GB	5 GB
File retention	180 days from upload	No limit	No limit	No limit
Your Droplana address	Includes a random suffix	Your chosen name	Your chosen name	Your chosen name
Data Processing Agreement	Standard	Standard	Countersigned available	Countersigned available
Support	Email	Email	Priority	Priority
Personal setup call	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included

Need more storage?

Add 500 GB for €15/month + tax, or €150/year + tax. Each storage add-on also raises your maximum file size to 5 GB.

Available on all paid plans from your billing page. Add more than one for another 500 GB each. Your team size stays the same.

Related comparisons

The closest comparison is Droplana vs Content Snare. Accounting firms can also read Droplana vs SmartVault, and if requests go out by email today, see Droplana vs email. The accounting practices page and the financial advisers page show the same exchange in other firms.